Archive for the ‘Oregon’ Category

A look at what the newspapers are saying a day after they’ve had time to digest Saturday’s action.

Beat a team 70-0, so what. That’s no reason to relax, especially with the mighty Rockets from Toledo coming to town Saturday. Coaches don’t let Wildcats relax [Tucson Citizen]

Sun Devil freshman had an opportunity to play against Northern Arizona, exposing them to their first college football action. Coach Dennis Erickson was more focused on getting them some experience than the results on the field. ASU’s late dip vs. NAU doesn’t worry Erickson [East Valley Tribune]

California Head Coach Jeff Tedford chose Kevin Riley as his QB right out of fall camp. After Saturday’s win over Michigan State, the gap between Riley and last year’s starter Nate Longshore seems even greater. Riley was telling the Cal students to stop booing Longshore after he threw his second pick of the day in his new, limited role. Cal’s Tedford gets QB decision right…twice [Contra Costa Times]

Oregon QB Justin Roper is feeling better after suffering a concussion on Saturday. Also, starting LT Fenuki Tupou will be back this week after being suspended for accepting a lunch and $100 from an agent. Tupou has since donated $110 to charity. Ducks’ stock ticks up [The Register-Guard]

Tyrone Willingham keeps all his practices closed expect the first 25 minutes. It looked like Oregon had been practicing with the Huskies all season, maybe even had a copy of their playbook. With BYU coming to town this week, UW doesn’t have a lot of time to get this fixed. Washington’s game plan was an open book to Oregon [Seattle Times]

After watching film of the Oklahoma State game, Coach Paul Wulff still sees a team that made too many mistakes. Wulff was impressed with the offense in the 3rd quarter, stresses the fact that it should run that smooth all game long. Looking back at Saturday’s game [Spokesman-Review]

***Isn’t it nice when 18-year old kids are going to play a prominent role with your football team. That’s an advantage if your a high school coach, a very scary proposition if your a college coach.***

Berekly, CA – California head coach Jeff Tedford named his starter, Kevin Riley will start against Michigan State. This means that Nate Longshore will be watching from the sideline, at least for the first few games barring injury.

Eugene, OR – Rob Moseley gives us his season predictions for the Ducks. Rob approached his predictions a little differently, rather than just predicting each game he assigned a value to each game that represented how many times he believes Oregon would win if the teams played 10 times.

Los Angeles, CA – UCLA is preparing for their Labor Day battle with Tennessee by outlining which freshman will play. If your math is correct, 9 true freshman will not redshirt and help the Bruins this season.

Tempe, AZ – Freshman are making an impact with ASU as well, WR Gerell Robinson is catching on and understanding the more complex offense better. A better name for the “bubble”, how about the Sun Devil Sauna???? No. We don’t think so either.

That’s the report out of Oregon. He may have injured his knee in practice last night. There is no official word, so we don’t know if it is true, and whether or not it is the same knee that was injured last season.

What we do know is that backup Justin Roper looked good in the scrimmage on Saturday. He was 7-8 for 155 yards, this is the same guy who lead the Ducks to a blowout victory over South Florida in the Sun Bowl last December.

With the UW game only 9 days away, it’s looking more and more like Roper will be starting the season against the Dawgs.

You never know, this may be a blessing for Oregon, although you have to feel bad for Nate Costa. All the kid wants to do is play, yet his body keeps failing him.

The Ducks were a healthy Dennis Dixon away from the National Championship Game last season, Mike Bellotti has a .619 winning percentage since 2002, and Phil Knight is pumping more money into Oregon athletics than USC boosters were into the Bush family. How then, can Coaches Hot Seat be predicting that Bellotti is entering his final season in Eugene?

Frankly, we think it’s ridiculous. You don’t fire a guy who has been at the helm of the program through its’ most successful run ever. You can’t use the schedule as an excuse, it’s tough every season, with 9 conference games.

Predicting that Oregon is going to lose to a middle-tier Big 10 team is laughable. Purdue’s RB is likely done and West Lafayette isn’t the most intimidating place to play. Yes, the Ducks play USC, Arizona State, and California on the road, but they are very capable of stealing one, if not two, of those games.

Do we expect Oregon to win the Pac-10? No. Do we expect Mike Bellotti to be the coach at Oregon in 2009? Without a doubt.

***Can you believe real, live college football is only one week away? It feels like Christmas Eve around here. This means that Michael Phelps has more gold medals in 2008 than we do days until the gridiron.***

Eugene, OR – Who’s gonna be Oregon’s starting QB against Washington? Who knows, but an announcement is expected Friday.

Los Angeles, CA – USC starting QB Mark Sanchez participated in 7-on-7 drills Wednesday. Causing further speculation that he may be able to play August 30 when the Trojans travel to Virginia. Also ESPN’s Ted Miller sat down with Pete Carroll. Here is Part One and Part Two. It’s a good read, so take the time.

Bristol, CT – Former Pac-10 football analyst-turned-play-by-play man Dan Fouts has been signed by CBS to bolster their football coverage team. Fouts was let go by ABC/ESPN last year.

Pullman, WA – New head coach Paul Wulff gave the Cougars a grade of C+ for their first week of efforts. While the players may not be picking up the new playbook as fast as the coaches would like, they are definitely getting the hitting part down pat. A little fire after the play is over, showing that a 10th-place prediction doesn’t mean much in the land of wheat.

Seattle, WA – The University of Washington may soon hire a new Athletic Director. All we can say is, it’s about damn time. Having been without a permanent hire since January, the Huskies need to find some stability in their athletic programs. They currently have a head football coach who knows less about his starting QB’s injury than the kid’s father. Or at least Scott Locker is willing to share the information with the media, while the tight-lipped Willingham prefers to play dumb. Also, moving over to the Sports Blogging Network in the next week or two is the UW Football Blog.

Eugene, OR – Big love for Oregon DB (what position does he really play? Safety? Rover? We don’t know, but want to.) Patrick Chung who Sporting News says might be the best defensive player in the country! It seems everybody in the conference is having QB problems, but Oregon’s QBs looked decent in their scrimmage Saturday. It’s only 19 more days until the hated Huskies arrive in Eugene.

Los Angeles, CA – With UCLA starter Ben Olson getting hurt and subsequently being out eight weeks, the QB race is suddenly wide open again. The coaches want to have a starter in place in exactly two weeks, so we’ll see who decides to take the reigns.

Tempe, AZ – The nomadic Ryan McFoy may have finally found his place on the field, as a linebacker. It has to be tough getting moved around like that, although forgetting your thigh pads will get you noticed.

Berekley, CA – After a week of practice and three days in pads, injuries at California are starting to add up. It’s good to hear that RB Jahvid Best is finally returning to full health, something that Cal will need if it wants to finish near the top of the conference.

Palo Alto, CA – With a new defensive coordinator, the Cardinal defense returns 11 players who made starts last season and hope to improve on last year’s ninth-worst Pac-10 defense. In recruiting news, Stanford has offered a scholarship to Joe Montana’s son. Nick Montana is currently a junior who is competing for the starting QB job at Oaks Christian High.